Community Services and Youth Committee - Regular Meeting

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I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Audience participation is encouraged. Plea public comments are limited to three minutes. We do have to comment on any matters within the jurisdiction of the commission.

You are invited to participate in person or call at (951) 826-8688. Press 9 to be placed in the queue to speak. Individuals in the queue will be prompted to unmute by pressing 6 when you are ready to speak. To participate via Zoom, use the following link, https/zoom.us/j/9269699126five. Select the raise hand function to request to speak.

An on screen message will prompt you to unmute and speak. We have four public speaker cards. We will now hear from Monica Laureates.

Do I press the button? Hi everyone, I'm Monica Larios from Discount Medical Equipment and Supply. My husband George couldn't be here. He is running the store at the moment. We have two locations here in Riverside.

Our first location is on Tyler And Magnolia, and our second one, our newest one, just opened it about a year ago, two now I think, is off 14th Street in Orange. This business has been around for over thirty years. We took over about five years ago. George brings about thirty years of retail experience and I have just recently retired from teaching and so now I'm focused on the business, on our customers. Our mission at Discount Medical Equipment and Supply is to find the perfect solution for your mobility, mobility, rehab, and daily needs.

Our value and our promise to our community is service you can trust. You will always see George there five, six days a week. And you will see me on and off between that store on Tyler or 14th Street store or I'm running around at my kid's school. So you'll always see me around. Our second value and promise is quality products coupled with expert team.

Our tech, we have a tech on-site. So if something happens, you bring in your mobility scooter or your lift chair, we can go pick it up, we take care of it on-site. We don't send it away to anybody. The mobility is our priority for our customers and creating a memorable experience is also very important. We do pride ourselves on finding the perfect solution for our customers.

We have a large selection of quality products from reputable vendors. We sell new, we rent, we repair, we have pre owned and also come to you with our mobile fleet. So when our customers have issues with some of their products, we drive out there and we take care of it. One of the things that George and I really wanted to, achieve with our success was being able to give back to our community. And that is number one right now.

We work with Jenna Joschi Center, and we're there two Fridays a month, every other Friday. First Friday, we have it fix it Friday where Fernando, one of our techs comes in with me. We bring in products to share, and then we fix their walkers, their scooters. Whatever we can do real quick right there and then, we do that free, no charge. The second Friday is more where we pick up donations from our members at the Janik Doskey. We bring them home well,

not home, we bring them

to the store, clean them up, and then we wanna give them right back. We wanna give them back to community members. So if you know of anyone who needs a walker, a cane, a mobility scooter, a wheelchair, a shower chair, and they're in need and economically they can't, you know, afford it, please reach out to us. Let us know, and we will do everything in our power to get those items to your community members.

Thank you. We will now hear from Veronica Cortez.

Good evening, honorable commissioners. My name is Veronica Cortez. I am the recreation services coordinator for Ismail Villegas community center in the Casablanca community. I'm just here to announce some of the upcoming senior events that we have coming to our various senior centerscommunity centers. Miss Marney will be passing out some of the sheets with the dates and events that we have throughout our communities for you for yourself, keep in and if you guys are always welcome to join us.

We have some several dinner dances, luncheons the second or fourth Thursday of each month, Wednesdays at Dale's. We have several presentations for our seniors, such as the Healthy Heart. We also have Kaiser coming at Dale's to do a little introduction to seniors on health and all the changes that are happening in the health care community. And then at Viegas Park, we also have a presentation on healthy aging. As we have a lot of new seniors coming, We are pretty much broadening that information to them.

We also have a few breakfasts at Dale's. We have Doctor. Seuss at breakfast. $3 sounds to be fun, so hopefully you guys join us. Our dinner dance at Viegas Park is gonna be on February 26. You guys are more than welcome. It's from three to six. It's a $10 fee. We're gonna have a DJ and a full catered meal for them. And then also, I did not add it onto the list, but for in case you guys have any seniors that know or for yourselves included, we are offering free tax services at our senior community center at Villegas.

We have taxes preparations for any community member that has earned 65,000 or less. It's free service. They meet there on every Monday until the last until tax season is over. So they meet there, we have from 9AM to one, and then from three to seven. They can make an appointment, or they're welcome to walk in every Monday until tax season is over. So thank you for your time. I hope to see you guys there at our events, and see you guys next month. Thank you.

We will now hear from Claudia Panati.

Hello. Good afternoon. Thank you so much for allowing me a few minutes of your time today. My name is Claudia Penape, and I'm a marketer with Home Instead. We're proud to have served the rivers Riverside area for twenty seven years.

Worldwide, Home Instead has been serving communities for thirty years, and we are now in 19 com in 19 countries. And that means that millions of families around the world have trusted Home Instead to care for the people they love most. So what do we do? At Home Instead, we provide nonmedical home care services that help seniors stay safe, comfortable, and independent in their own homes. That includes help with bathing, dressing, grooming, meal preparation, lighthouse keeping, medication reminders, companionship, transportation to appointments, and support for families who need guidance and peace of mind.

But more than tasks, what we really provide is peace of mind. Knowing your loved one is safe, respected, and cared for when you can't be there. We also believe strongly in community partnerships. We don't work alone. We grow through collaboration.

We are proud partners with California Baptist University where we support students who are learning to serve their community. We currently have an MSW intern working with us, gaining real world experience while helping families navigate challenges like caregiving stress, resources and emotional support. We also partner with Riverside City College nursing students. Many of them work with us so they can practice patient care, communication, compassion and real life caregiving skills. Another partnership we're excited about is Pocket RN.

You'll see in the flyers that you'll get soon that this program provides no cost dementia care support to qualifying families through Medicare. It includes access to dementia trained nurses, virtual check ins, family education, medication review, care coordination and even up to seventy two hours of no cost home care each year for qualifying families. This is a power resource for families who often feel lost, scared after a dementia diagnosis and we're proud to help connect them to this support. We're also very excited to share that we have just secured a contract with Riverside Community Hospital. This is a big opportunity for us and for the families we serve.

It allows us to work more closely with hospital teams, support smoother transitions from hospital to home and help reduce complications, readmissions and caregiver stress. Okay. Thank you so much for your time.

Our last speaker will be Randy Berrigan.

Alright. Good afternoon, com commission. My name is Randy Barragan. I'm a supervisor with the city of Riverside Riverside Connect. We provide transportation for the city of Riverside with in the city for seven days a week for the last fifty years. I'm here to introduce our mobile app. The app will allow our passengers to make reservations from their phone. Passengers will have the convenience to pay with a credit card or debit card. On the app, it will allow to see reservations and make cancellations if needed. You'll also get notifications when the estimated time of your driver will be there.

For training and more information, I will be hosting trainings at various senior location centers. I just did one today at Dale's. Thank you again, Marni. I'll be holding them at Janikoski, Dale's again, Viegas, La Sierra. Yes. Sorry about that one. And Bourbelle. But also you can for more information, you could contact us at 1806878080. It's a reservation line. Or you could get information on riversideconnect.com. Also, the first ride for new passengers is a round trip. So just come on, try us out, and it's

free. Thank you, Marty.

Thank you. We will now close public comment and move to the presentation Riverside Public Utilities Resources for Seniors.

Okay, there's our presentation. Good afternoon, Commissioner Roberts and all members of the commission here. My name is Tracy Sato. I am one of the assistant general managers with Riverside Public Utilities and I oversee the strategic initiatives division. Our division also covers our customer engagement team who I do have members here.

I have Carrie Dowsett who is our manager of customer engagement and Kristianne Ahmad who is our customer resource center manager and she is over at the Casablanca Resource Center and handles a lot of the programs I'm going to talk about today and is available for all of our customers. What I'm gonna cover today is to go over all of our programs that we have that are available to our seniors at a very high level but I'm also gonna address some of this safety and security scam alert information that had been requested by Commissioner, I have forgot, yes. Dubois. Yeah, I apologize. I had just looked at it and I didn't write her name down on my sheet here.

Commissioner Dubois at the last meeting as well as several others had discussed that. So we will get to scam alert in this presentation, and then we're gonna give you some important contact information and other materials. So later in the presentation, we'll also be passing out some of our materials that we do offer and we do provide as well as some of the other things that we give out at different events. So I wanted to start off with the best way that RPU serves our customer is trying to be the best that we can at providing the services that we provide at the lowest cost. So RPU, if you don't know, is an electric and water utility that serves the majority of the city water about three quarters of the city and for electric, pretty much the entire city.

Our mission statement is to provide the highest quality water and electric service at the lowest possible rate to the benefit of the community. We are not for profit. So if a lot of folks are coming from Southern California Edison territory or they have relatives there, those are investor owned utilities and they have investors. And so they do have higher rates. It is helping RPU to make sure that we keep our rates as low as possible.

And just for your information, RPU's electric rates and water rates are some of the lowest, literally like the second lowest in Southern California as far as what we have on our bills. We try and be as efficient as possible with our lowest possible rates just enough to be able to maintain our systems and provide service to you community members. We also pride ourselves on making sure that our water is reliable and safe so you can be confident that the water coming out of your faucet or the electricity that's being served to your house is a safe product that's gonna come out. Quality customer care is also really important. When you call in, you're gonna talk to somebody.

So we'll go over a little bit of that. That's really important. We're out in the community and then we also strive for sustainability, operational excellence and making sure that our workforce is trained and available to the community. I wanted to start off with programs before we get to the scam alert. I'm gonna start off with our low income support programs.

RPU does provide low income assistance programs that are available to all low income customers but are particularly of interest and have helped the majority of customers. A lot of our customers that come in are seniors who are on fixed incomes. So these are really important programs for our customers and we take pride in trying to make sure that these customers are meeting our customers' needs as much as we can. We've been providing these programs since the late 1980s and initially only provided these programs as an emergency assistance. In other words, if you were gonna have your power cut off, we could provide $150 That was initially what it was.

But back in 2018 with the rate plans where we have gone to the rate plans that have to start increasing the rates to cover costs, we changed that and we added a monthly benefit so that all customers who qualify for this program can qualify for that monthly on bill credit and as well as keeping that deposit and emergency assistance available. I'm going to go over a little bit more detail about this on the next couple of slides. The other program that we have added is the Energy Savings Assistance Program, and this is a program to help reduce your energy costs by a direct install of energy efficiency measures at your home. And I'll go over what those are because if you don't have a higher bill, that also is a huge cost savings moving forward for assistance. These are income qualified programs.

So both of these programs do require that they meet income qualifications. Our income qualification on both of these programs is 250% of the federal poverty guidelines. It is updated every year. As soon as the federal poverty guidelines are increased, we increase our qualifications. So those come out again every year, usually around March.

So we'll be watching them this year. But what that means, most of our seniors are in one or two person households. And as you can see on the slide here, the income qualification that is shown here. Your annual income for a single person household is $39,125 so if you make that or less, you would qualify for this program. That's about a monthly income of $3,260 If you're a two person household, the income qualification is $52,875 and the monthly is $4,406 So if you make less than that, if that is your annual income, you will qualify for this program and we do really encourage customers who qualify to come in and contact us to set up this program, both the SHARE program and the ESAP program.

Our SHARE program currently serves about 5,900 customers per year. We know that there are more customers who qualify out in the community and we do hope to get the word out for folks to come in. The current monthly benefits are increased every year through our, when our rates increase, we increase the monthly credit that goes out. The maximum that a customer may receive in any given year is the combination of the emergency or deposit assistance plus the monthly assistance is $538 but what that translates to in 2026 is 20 electric side and another $5.25 on the water side. And I will note there's also waste.

Waste has started to come in so if you qualify for this program, I can't remember what the rebate is but there is also assistance for your trash pickup. The Energy Savings Assistance Program is a partnership with SoCal Gas, and this is what we call a direct install program. We have a vendor. Their name is Synergy. They're a real company that's out there and this is a no cost direct install at the customer's home.

What we provide on our side that customers could qualify for includes a new refrigerator. If your refrigerator is 2,009 or older, you could actually have your refrigerator replaced and we will also help with it being disposed of. You can get new light bulbs, new lighting fixtures for LED lighting in your home. And LED lighting is much more energy efficient than a traditional bulb. We do air conditioning tune ups or Synergy does the air conditioning tune ups, some HVAC motors that are much more efficient, smart programmable thermostats, insulation, weather stripping, and caulking.

This lowers both your heating and your cooling costs, duct sealing and testing, occupancy sensors, and whole house fans. And again, for low income customers, this is a fantastic opportunity to participate in this program. No cost. It's no cost. As long as you qualify, it's no cost.

But we also recognize that not every customer owns their home or is a customer of RPU. So this really affects, in particular, a lot of our mobile home parks that are master metered. Each of those individual mobile homes is not customer of RPU and they can't qualify for the program because there's no way to distribute that benefit out. So we started a new program also in partnership with SoCalGas called the Mobile Home and Multifamily Program. This is also a direct install program, no income qualification, and it is solely based on whether you are in an apartment or a townhome or a mobile home.

So Synergy does go out and they will go into the neighborhood. We do try and go out and make sure that we're there present at the time when they start so that the community knows it's an RPU program and why a vendor would be coming to their door, this is a real thing. The measures are a little bit, they're not quite as many because of the structure type, but we still provide that refrigerator placement, the smart programmable thermostat, lighting, the LED lighting will help with refrigerant management on the air conditioning system, the more efficient motors, and on mobile homes only will also help with the crossover duct replacement if it's needed. So this really helps with the energy efficiency in our programs. There are also other types of assistance for bill assistance because we know bill is really important.

The city charges a utility user tax, and so this is not actually an RPU program, but it is something that the city administers and we like to make sure customers are aware of it. You can apply to the city if your gross income from the prior year meets the income qualifications. They're much, much lower. They're more at the poverty level of 23,475 for the previous year. So it is a low income program and that will refund back the taxes paid for all utility services.

And that includes any taxes that were on the gas bill or your telecom bill if you pay taxes on that. An RPU program that kind of tees off of that, if you qualify for the utility user tax refund, you will also qualify to have the reliability charge on your utility bill waived if you are a senior aged 55 and older. So this is for seniors, but you also have to hit that poverty level income qualification. And then the last program that we offer at RPU that I wanted to talk about here was Utilicare. And Utilicare is for individuals who have medical devices that require electricity to run over a long period of time.

We will provide a utiliCare rate that provides you some extra electricity at the lowest rate, at the lowest tier on our bill to cover the amount of electricity for your medical device because we do want to make sure that it's not your medical device that's driving your bill up. And overall, any of our programs that we do offer for water conservation as well as energy efficiency will help to lower a customer's bill both on the water side and the electric bill side. We have rebates for Energy Star appliances. We have the Shade Tree program, which is just about to launch in March. We help with weatherization, and these would be rebates not necessarily fully covering the cost, but a partial payment towards weatherization.

Our turf replacement program will help to replace out grass because grass uses a lot of water. Our lawns are very water intensive, and this will help to replace that out at a lower cost. And we also help with washing machine and toilet replacement, so we have rebates for those as well. And all of this information, and this is really important, is available to our customers. We provide all of our materials to make them accessible for all of our customers.

We have program information in large print and braille format. I'm gonna hold something up here. We're one of the few utilities that'll provide all of this information in Braille so we do have this available at our senior centers and at other locations. This is not in your bag because these are a little bit more pricey and we like to make sure that they get updated when appropriate, whenever our programs change, but we do have that. We also offer everything in large print.

We have all of our program and materials in both English and Spanish, and our RPU webpages, which have all of the program information on them, are available in many different languages. You can use the translation services there and you can have it do a read aloud. So even if you cannot read that, they can actually read the website for you. So that is all available. I'm gonna switch here just a little bit to scammers because I just talked about a program where we might have a vendor out in the community that is offering a program.

It is really, really important that you always ask for ID and confirmation before you let any money into your home. And we tell that to all of our customers. And actually, one of the most common utility scams, and this happens unfortunately on a fairly regular basis, we do appreciate when customers notify us that they had a scammer call because we do make sure that we send out messages to folks and we make sure that our call center is aware of it, what the scam call that is coming in is so that we can help our customers through and navigate that to make sure that they don't become a victim of that scamming. But one of the most common calls that we get or that we hear that our customers are getting is that somebody will call their home and threaten to turn off their electricity, their water, their gas. It may even come up and say Riverside Public Utilities or SoCal Gas.

We have no control over that, but the scammers have figured out how to get that to be the caller ID on their account. So you have to be just very aware that there's a couple of things. What they will do is they'll threaten to turn off your power within an hour if you don't pay a bill and they ask for a debit card number so that you give them that debit card number and they charge your account right there. We will never ever ask for a customer to pay their bill over the phone like that. We would never call them and threaten to shut off their power.

Now, we do have customers who maybe have not paid their bill, and it's never an hour. They don't hear about it for the first time an hour before it's going to happen. They usually are getting notifications for a couple of months up to the point where they would get a tag notice which is actually a flyer or hanger, a door hanger that gets delivered to their home. And then they still have forty eight hours to come in and either pay the bill or work on a payment plan or work through some other way so that we can try and keep their power on. And if they are qualified for our share program, they may even get that $250 of low income assistance right there and get signed up for the monthly share credit going forward.

So we really want to make sure that our customers, if anybody is coming to your door, you're checking, always check for an ID. These

are

the types of communications we wanna make sure. Check for an ID. They will have a city ID. They should be in a vehicle and they should be in a uniform, a city uniform that has RPU on it. We will never ask to go into somebody's home unless it has been scheduled, arranged, an appointment. So we do go to people's homes for assistance and I'm gonna get to that in just a little bit if they can't come down. But we do wanna make sure that customers know that. We will also never ask for payment at the site. So we would be charging your account right then and there. And this is one of the most important things I think that RPU offers is being present.

We're there in the community. Not only are we at our call centers, but we try and get out to the community as much as possible. We have monthly visits at several of our senior centers across the city where we do take applications for SHARE and other programs right there on-site, but we also provide information and help the customers know what they need to do. We visit Janet Goskie, Victoria Springs Apartments, Cambridge Gardens Senior Housing, and Silvercrest Salvation Army Senior Housing on a quarterly basis. We also attend other events whenever we are invited.

We do provide presentations at the mayor's senior forums throughout the year and we are available. We go if anybody wants to have our PU out at an event, we have done events at various mobile home parks with other city services and other city departments to provide the information and to help customers right there on-site as much as possible. And we have all of our printed materials, not only downtown, because we know not everybody uses the web or can get on their phone and look things up, but we do provide all the printed materials at our various community centers and the Dales And La Sierra Senior Centers. I believe we also have everything at Janet Goskie. So pretty much as many locations as we possibly can.

And we do update that and refresh it so that the information is current whenever there's replacements and if anything is running out, we try and make sure we get out there and provide that material in the community as close as possible. In person support, like I said, is incredibly important. We have walk in resources at both the Orange Square Customer Service Center, which is right here next to City Hall, just down the Street. I'm not gonna read their address and phone numbers. They're on the slide.

But we also have the Casablanca Customer Resource Center, and this is a really important location because this is in the Casablanca neighborhood on Madison. There is a customer service counter so people can pay their bills at that location, and then they also can go directly over to our customer engagement counter and apply for any of our programs, including our low income programs there directly. So that is a resource that is available. RPU will also do home visits if needed. If a customer is disabled and unable to come in, they need to contact the numbers that we have shown here or call the call center and we can go out and help with the application, for example, for share or to find assistance.

So that is a service that we will provide. We can't do bill pay though. So they do have to come in to pay their bill because again, we will not take payment out in the field. And I wanted to make sure that we noted one other service here for low income customers or anyone who's struggling to pay their bill and has the threat of their power or their water being shut off, and that is our Riverside County Community Action Partnership. This is a wonderful resource.

They are the provider of LIHEAP, the Low Income Home Energy Program from the federal government. This is an assistance program that provides even more assistance to help cover all the bills to get folks back on their feet with their utility bills if they have really hit a hard time. They're an incredibly important partner. They can also qualify customers for all of our programs. I do want to note that after this presentation was submitted and ready to be published, they moved their office and let us know.

They are in the process of moving from actually Iowa Street to Spruce Street, but their ultimate office in just a few days where their new permanent office location is gonna be at 5555 Arlington Avenue and the phone number that's on this slide is correct. So again, 5555 Arlington Avenue. And with that, that concludes my presentation. I am happy to answer any questions. My team here is gonna be happy to answer any questions. We also would love any ideas you have. So we're here and available should you need it.

Thank you so much for the presentation. Does any of our commissioners have questions? Yes sir.

I've used that share program and it's fabulous And a lot of people because I go to Los Sierra Senior Center and I could do a lot of time working with the mentally challenged, which I retired from doing that. And there were so many things with this city that you got in that program. It would even helping this mentally challenged. But that share program is wonderful. It really and it helps. It really does.

Thank you.

I mean, I don't know how long that's been going, but I know they we I pay my bill at Madison.

Mhmm.

And they've always been so good over there, you know, with asking questions and doing things. And it's really hard when you get around with certain seniors. I have a three or four friends that are retired military and when you get older, you don't know if you give a phone number 825, they brought they write down 645 or whatever and it's hard getting some of these people to know where, what, and and thank god you go to Janikoski, this La Sierra. And I think I even ran into somebody over that that hello, sports center and they said that they call the city if you have. So it's really nice what you've done.

I just want to say that.

Thank you so much. We are we are so happy we can get out to the community and be there, and if you have suggestions, we only have so many staff, but we try and get out to as many places and locations as we can because it is important, and the SHARE program isn't just for seniors. It is for anybody I who's low do want to make sure I'm clear on that too but it is available for seniors and a lot of our customers who do apply for that are seniors.

Commissioner Kelly.

I just wanted to thank you because I didn't know all of those programs existed. To the seniors that we've come in contact with, Thank you

for passing it along too. We want people to apply for these programs.

Commissioner Bash.

You I

don't know if this

is gonna work. You mentioned here in the pamphlet that printed information is available. You have those at the various centers. Is it possible for to get that information?

Yes. So we've provided some of the printed materials that we have in your bag and then we are, if you would like to have materials to hand out, we can definitely get that to you. Yes. Okay, yes. Alright.

So who

do you contact?

You can contact me. You can contact any of the numbers here. It'll get in touch with Christyann, and we have those numbers in the presentation, but just reach out and feel free, you reach out to me personally so right across the street.

Thank you, ma'am.

Other questions? Thank you so much for the presentation. Very informative.

Thank you so much for having us here.

There. Thank you. Thank you, baby. Okay. All matters listed under the consent calendar are considered routine by the Commission on Aging I and may be enacted by one motion in the form listed below. So we're meeting minutes of November November 17 do we have a motion to approve the consent calendar

I have a motion to approve the minutes with a correction on sorry page 21 at the top where says commissioner dove I'm sorry October 26 trinity therapeutic riding center is riding r I d I n g it was a fourth horses. So yes, I motion to approve the minutes with the one revision.

Ready to vote?

Yes.

Oh, I'm sorry. Do we have a second? I'll

second if you need a second.

Yeah. We have a second.

Okay. Good. Thank you. Oh, God. I'm supposed to touch that.

Now could I do yes? Okay.

Everybody, do it again. Okay.

We have to all do it again. Oh,

I was saying no. Okay. That's fine. I did. Yes. I can. Maybe that screwed it up.

Okay. Now we will move to the Commission on Aging Work Plan Review.

So each year there is a presentation done by the chair. This year they have changed the process of how it will be done so she will not go and do the presentation this year. It has been accepted as is and if you also look on the very back page that is your 2026 work plan. So your 2025 was in progress or achieved. So this will be your 2026 work plan.

So this is just a discussion. So anybody has any questions. The last page.

On the last page.

We're still

keeping the ad hoc committees right and they will work accordingly or is that what this

Yes because it's a lot of ongoing but I will say since some of you commissioners have been on the same ad hocs for two years, you might want to take a new adventure and reach out and seeking different avenues and seniors because I think a couple of your ad hocs only have maybe one person so it's a little bit harder. So you definitely might wanna look at and I will send those ad hocs out within the next week. So if you you know, I would encourage you to to work on another one just that way you get you get more experience and meet more people. Touch more lives. So has everybody looked at the work plan?

I'm gonna go ahead and put it into vote. Do we have a motion?

No. Entertain a motion that we accept the 2026 work plan.

Second Basher?

I recommend that we accept the Bark Plan.

You second the motion? Okay. You may now vote.

Oh I've already voted. Is that You're good.

You're good.

Okay.

All votes have been cast and it's now complete. Thank you.

Thank you, We will now proceed to the communication portion of the agenda. You will be given the opportunity to give your committee updates during this item. The item is only to receive ad hoc committee updates. Are there any updates or communications from our ad hoc committees? Housing.

Housing housing has an update in regards to the quality in and that was voted on and it apparently was voted down but they are making a second attempt on the housing. I attended the meetings on that.

Thank you. Senior Health.

Commissioner Bash, do you know the date that you were at that event?

Oh, no.

Okay. You can just send it to us at a later. You can send it.

You're fine.

Thank you.

Last Tuesday, wasn't it? On City Council meeting last Tuesday.

Thank you.

Senior Health. Okay. Events?

Talk about it is it song? It's

not turned on?

Yeah. It is.

I just want to add regarding how we manage our events we're going to also be focusing on reaching out to the underserved areas not necessarily the senior centers but try to align ourselves or be visiting mobile home parks and senior living facilities that aren't really incorporated into the Department of Parks and Rec senior centers.

Thank you. More on events? Yeah. Okay. So

the event committee, we handed out Christmas cards, our annual Christmas cards. I think there were like 300, then we we handed out like 250 of them. We were at convalescent hospitals. We were at the La Sierra Christmas party. I attended the Christmas dinner at the Country Club Senior Park.

At that, I handed out more Christmas cards. Then I was at Dale's, handed out some of the candy and some more Christmas cards. At at when I was at Dale's, I learned that there were a few people that didn't even know who we were. So we're gonna have to work a little bit harder, I think.

Yeah. There's a lot.

Yeah. There are. Woah. Yeah. I attended the monthly meeting at The Meadows, which is a very nice mobile home park, and and their seniors seem to be well served. So it wouldn't hurt to check-in with them off and on, but I think they're well well taken care of there. And you know what? I just came across one of my notes. January 13 was the date that I attended the city hall meeting for Quality Inn. Okay.

Do you have anything to add? Events, under events?

Under events. I attended a pancake breakfast at the Riverside County Club mobile home park. That was sponsored by the community hospital. They served pancakes and yogurt and fruits and coffee to all the seniors.

Thank you.

I think I'm done for right now.

Environment. No report. Mobility?

No report.

Thank you. Are there any updates of conferences, seminars, and regional meetings attended by commissioners? Commissioner Kelly, we'll start from you and come this way.

Just the December 17 at La Sierra, their holiday party, we attended that, went around and talked to everybody at all the tables.

Are you talking in the mic?

Did well, she has to did you have something to say? Oh. Yeah. Because she was.

Thank you commissioner bass

I have I nothing to report.

I've been in the National Guard with military. I attended a military thing at Janikowski Senior Center, and I passed out some information in regards to, senior help that I got over in Loma Linda. And with that, I made a little note in there about the commission on aging, and if there's questions that people can come and you talk and you do. And I did that, and there were so many people that came in, Don, thanks, because we didn't even know, you know, you could come do that. And and it that's one thing about Janet Gosky.

If their information is there, but there's so many people who don't my neighbor down the street, She didn't even know that there's help to like to drive, the guy came with the now she's taken that bus and she's going to Happy as a Lark. She didn't know they had lunch at either La Sierra or or there, and it's really nice. And keep Riverside clean and beautiful years ago. I used to always do that because I was on the board, and, that's another thing I wrote down and put down for they could get in of it. So I didn't this isn't their original report. I'm just telling you what I did. You know?

Thank you so much. Commissioner Dove.

I didn't do anything in December, I did a couple things in January. Okay. November 19, the Boardwalk Park Community Meeting. On January 19, the MLK Walk. On January 22, Blue Zones had a vision board party.

That was pretty cool. I went to that downtown at the Rain Cross. January 27, the Inland Aging Coalition, they had a zoom that was excellent I want to talk more about that but this isn't the time so but I would like to be more on that the Inland Coalition on Aging, and really get involved. They were showing they were talking about how you can come up with the laws and all the steps we need to do that can protect our seniors now and in the future. So, and they've given dates.

So, that's just something we should put on our radar and maybe, I don't know, have a discussion where we think could help our seniors, in Riverside in the future. Commissioner Quasman.

On November 18, I participated in the Turkey Giveaway at the Janet Goskey Center. And then on December 6, I participated in the Goskie Holiday Festival and then on December 10 Mayor Lach Dawson came to Goskie to give her Mayor's Forum and then I participated also on in the seventeenth in December at the Giving Tree Telethon where we raised money for the nonprofit foundation at the Janet Goskie Center. And then I also participated in the Magnolia Nursing Home with the holiday cards. And then let's see. On the nineteenth, I did the MLK walk and participated in the state of state of the city last night, night, which was excellent.

So that brings me up to speed, I think.

Okay. So on November I'm

sorry.

Council meeting. On January 19, I was a participant in the MLK walk. January 28, I also was Boardwalk Advisory Committee and also the state of the city last night. Thank you.

I have one to add that I just thought about. I attended a Blue Zone presentation. I'm trying to figure out what date it was. It was in December towards the end. I'd have to look it up. I don't have my December calendar with me.

Thank you. Are there any requests for items for future consideration? Commissioner Dove.

Just a couple of things. Have and I don't know if this was done in the past, but we go through these events and other expos. Have we thought about doing an expo maybe in 2027? I'd like to put that on the table and discuss it because I think that would get a lot of information out bringing everybody together and that they will see that and Janet Gosky is doing a fabulous job but they are not the only ones who can provide for our seniors right And as they were saying getting out who was saying about going places that we don't normally go to see the seniors. So and I think an expo would be kind of nice if we put that on.

So So you're saying collaborate with other city offices or city Right.

Yes. So I think you would start with your events ad hoc Yes. And kind of talk about with that and then expand from there.

Yeah. Because we're going to all these little, little things. How about the events committee do one big thing once a year?

I think in the past you guys have but you don't have a budget to do big. But you can definitely collaborate with somebody to be able to do that.

And don't always need money. So there's ways of getting around it.

The the city of Riverside, which you guys represent, hosts a senior expo. So maybe we look at Yeah. Once the event committee then get with the senior centers and then figure out how to get out to all those other people. But maybe that might be a good thing for you. It's usually in August on senior day. I'll have to check the date on that, but it's it's August. I'm just not sure of the date this year. But, definitely, your events committee can start that ball rolling and then Yeah. Contact the senior group.

A question. I would like to invite Commissioner Dove to participate on the events committee

because my committee but I would I would definitely for that event I would love to be at least part of it I don't have to be on the committee but I could just give input then I'd more and with that said, the second money, how about how do we increase the funding? I'd like that to be on for the future. What can we do? Because my thing is I wanted to go to a couple of seminars and things like that. They cost a little bit of money. Was one I went to, the HEAT one. They did let me come in for free. I put on there, can I get it in? And they did. But I'd like us to be able to go and get some substantial information.

These things cost. So I'm not saying a grand budget. I don't know how we can. But if we can sit down and just talk about it and see how we can get a little bit more because you guys didn't even have enough for the cards this year, right? You did? Oh, because I thought I saw an email that came back out. There was an email. Okay. Okay. But we had money for nothing else, right? That's all we did. You know?

The events committee is very sensitive to our budget and want to be sure that we are not utilizing the bulk of it when there are other needs. So please by all means please let us know.

I don't wanna take from what we're already given. I'd like to find ways where we can add so we can do more.

Commissioner?

I I basically for somebody to come here and speak, do they have to, do they have to call you and ask you to come here? I was at the police department. I'm working, like I say, with the Yana. You're never alone. They call you, and this is a lot of seniors that don't even know there's a Jana Kaskior. There's help out there, and they get through the city and the police department finds and I'd like her to come in if she could sometime and give a speech on Yana. You know, I mean, I don't know if you can do that or

Commissioner Quasman's very good about having people come out and do a three minute, I think Yeah. That's basic. It's called her commercial. Yeah. Another thing with Yana, encourage them to go out to start at your senior centers, but then expand from, like, your mobile home parks and the different places. Definitely.

Well yeah. And yet another thing too, which a long time ago, I got information, and it was like a little flyer in my public utility bill. That, you know, every senior is gonna get a bill if they're living. Some of them are they don't. They live in the complexes, but they're that's no problem to go to a complex. I've went to a number and left stuff, and they've sent it out. But, I mean, I just wondered, you know, if we could. I'll talk to her, and she can get in touch with her and maybe do something there. Commissioner Kelly?

Uh-huh. Two things. One more thing I remembered I attended. It was for, Habitat for Humanity where they talked about programs that they have for seniors and how many free roofing jobs they do a year. And so you would apply through them. I think I want to say five or six in the area. So I thought that was important. Pardon

me? You

have to apply. Then my other question was, are we going to do a recognition for our artists that volunteered their artwork for our yes, for their holiday card. We've done that the last Good couple of

question. Did you hear the question? What's up? I'm sorry. Oh,

are we going to do a recognition for our two artists that were we used for the holiday card like we've done in the past? I know the seniors really enjoy doing that and getting selected.

We'll definitely put it as future items for consideration. Yes.

Do we have their names? I know who one of them was, but I don't know who the second one was.

The chamber of commerce. We've given them a certificate

or something. Is that what

because I think they

worked with them

in the past. And I

Oh, no. That's the business

got. Oh, okay.

Okay. So you're saying give them a certificate or

Yes.

Right. Thank you. I just want to be clear. Mhmm. Okay. Anyone else have any items for future consideration? Commissioner Quasman.

Very tired but I'm wondering the status of the flyers, the monthly flyers that I used to do to all the senior centers to alert who's the person? Gutierrez?

No. Veronica with our marketing department. So we will yes.

Yeah.

Yeah. We will will check to see where she's at.

I know Veronica. Yeah.

Okay.

So we

will check with to see where she at because she was directed to send it to you guys prior to. But we'll double check. I know marketing's been

She's a busy girl. Yeah. We're working on that.

We'll double check to make

sure in We'll make

sure in March that we get those flyers out ahead of time.

Okay. Because that's going to be helpful to let people know that we're here and that we're helpful. Thank you.

One other thing. I'm in the process of collecting different resources to put in a book for the events committee to use when we go to the different places. So when individuals come up and they have some certain concern, hopefully we have a resource to provide for them.

Okay. Okay. Next on our agenda, do we have any commissioners and or city staff

scoping and fire hardening your home February 28 from ten to twelve at La Sierra Avenue. This is from the Riverside Public Utilities. They give out these things. It's 4600 La Sierra Avenue. Then there's another dirt on soil Saturday March 14 from ten to twelve.

Our Lanza Library 8267 Phillipon Avenue. I'm sorry one more thing. For those of you who need free community resources connectie dot org. That's connect, connect,capitali,capitale.org. You can get free community resources from this Web site, but you also can dial 211 for free community resources.

What was that first one? That's the one at La Sierra. The date?

The date is February 28.

Okay. Thanks.

Okay. Any any any other commissioner have okay. Sorry. Commissioner Quasman?

Bingo is back and it what? Where'd it go? It's back with a vengeance.

God, it was

packed. I know. I know. Okay. So Woah. On February 7, Saturday noon, we're gonna have a huge bingo celebration at the Gosky Center. And you could go play bingo on Monday and Saturdays at noon. And I'm gonna be there on Saturday the seventh and then I'm also that evening going to attend the Black History Month kickoff.

Oh so am I. And

then we are having a fabulous health fair Galentine's at Gosky on the eleventh and I circulated a little So if somebody wants to participate we can get a table at no charge. And then I think that's about it thank you okay summer

get the mic to work all right good evening commissioners Summer Cremo, recreation supervisor with the Parks Recreation and Community Services Department. I just want to highlight some of our holiday events that have happened since our last meeting. The department hosted 10 eldertainment and luncheon events over the holiday season so that it was really busy and yeah, thank you to all the staff and then all of the city seniors who participated. The real highlight was our collaborative New Year's Eve bash brunch at Viegas on the December 31. And this was centered around bringing seniors from the centers across the city together to enjoy lunch and some entertainment and it was a lot of fun and it really highlighted for us the need to have more collaborative programming between the centers across the city.

So, we're excited. We've already had internal senior committee meeting this January where that was a topic of discussion. So we're excited for that in the future. On January 9, we had our Feeding America TFAP commodity box distribution at La Sierra Senior Center. And for the first time in months, we saw a decrease in participation and we don't know if this was because the change in date due to the New Year's holiday, it was also inclement weather, it was quite windy and rainy.

Or we don't know if you know kind of maybe the changing federal budget landscape and maybe there's not quite the same need. So we're looking forward to next Friday and February distribution to kind of gauge if that was a trend or just a one off. Yeah, it's not just at La Sierra, we do distribute boxes to the other centers as well. But it's only kind of officially advertised at La Sierra. We also recently had 34 seniors participate in the city's senior trip to Fantasy Springs Casino and Resort on January 19.

And we do have an upcoming trip to Reagan Library on the February 19 from nine to six. Are there still tickets available? Yeah, if anybody hears of anyone wanting something to do. Also in our effort to focus on increased collaboration and communication among the city's senior centers and with the community, coming up on February 3, all of our recreation services coordinators will be attending a working lunch at the Janikoski Center. And this is to strengthen the relationship between the city's kind of community centers and senior center staff with the Janikoski staff to better understand the programs and services provided there so we can better collaborate.

February 3, so next week. The department also last Tuesday had the opportunity to join Riverside Senior Advisory Council, which is a private group of nonprofit and healthcare professionals who meet monthly here at City Hall to kind of network and share resources for seniors that's largely healthcare and health services related. So a little bit outside the scope of parks and rec, but it's good for us to know resources to direct seniors too. So we've now been invited to participate in that monthly. So we're excited to build those connections and have more healthcare related resources that we can provide to our seniors.

And finally, our senior strategic plan update. We're holding our second senior strategic plan advisory committee meeting on Wednesday, February 18 at the Dale Senior Center. And this meeting will be focused on the planning and design of the nonprofit government and corporate stakeholder engagement so that we can formally begin connecting with these stakeholders in March. So we're moving into the outreach and communication stage of the planning process.

That is all I have.

Good. Thank you. Our next Commission on Aging meeting is scheduled for Monday, March 17 at four p. M. Any questions? Meeting adjourned.